Saturday, 15 February 2014

LONDON BUSES TO GO CASHLESS FROM MID-2014

End of the cash fare on buses: Dwindling number of passengers who use coins and notes prompt change on London transport

TfL says it will remove the option to pay by cash by mid-2014

Around 99 per cent of customers now use contactless cards

Allowing cash payments costs £24million every year

London bus drivers will no longer accept cash payment on board their vehicles when new measures are introduced this summer.

Transport
for London has announced a raft of changes, including allowing
passengers with insufficient Oyster card credit to travel for a whole
journey before they need to top up.

TfL
said dwindling numbers of bus passengers using cash has prompted the
change, following a consultation in which it said 99% of customers
already use Oyster, prepaid tickets, contactless payment cards or
concessionary tickets.

Transport for London says it will remove the option to pay by cash for buses by mid-2014 (Colin Lloyd)

Leon Daniels, managing
director for TfL surface transport, said: 'The decision to stop
accepting cash fares on London buses reflects the changing way that
people pay for goods and services in our city, including journeys on the
bus network.

'Paying
with Oyster or a contactless payment card is not only the cheapest
option, but also speeds up boarding times at bus stops and reduces
delays.

'It costs £24million a
year to accept cash on London’s buses and by removing this option we
will generate significant savings which, like all of our income, will be
reinvested in improvements to the transport network.'

TfL said the changes will be brought in by mid-2014, once tests on the new technology have given the upgrade the green light.

During a recent public consultation, around a third of respondents agreed with the proposal to remove cash fares, TfL said.

Around three quarters of
responses to the consultation came from people who indicated that they
do not themselves pay cash fares on the bus.

TfL
said its new “one more journey” feature will allow passengers with less
than the single bus fare (currently £1.45) - but who have a positive
balance on their card - to make one more bus journey before they have to
add credit to their card.

The
operator will also provide refreshed guidance for all 24,500 London bus
drivers to ensure a consistent approach is taken when dealing with
vulnerable passengers, it said.

The card was publicly launched on June 30 2003, with around 60 million cards issued since then.

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